| Show story of the woman s crime the crime for which mrs mary mabel rogers was sentenced to de death ath was the murder of her husband mar cus rogers at bennington aug 13 at the time the crime was corn bitted mrs rogers was only 19 years old she had been separated from her husband for some time and was desir ous of marrying a young man named maurice knapp on the day of the murder marcus rogers went to ben den hington to visit his wife and that night she arranged to meet him in the woods near the walloomsac river S while caressing him she induced him to allow her to bind his hands and while he was powerless less she chloro formed him in this she was aided by y leon perham a half witted boy w who 0 was the son of the woman with whom she boarded another woman estella bates was present after chloroforming rogers perham and mrs rogers rolled the body into the river where it was found the next day in order to divert suspicion the woman wrote a note to which she signed her husband husbands s name giving the impression that he had committed s immediately after the murder mrs rogers endeavored to collect her bus band s life insurance amounting to and also made arrangements to purchase furniture for the house where she expected to live when she had married knapp A few days after the murder mrs rogers perham and the bates woman were ere arrested perham made a corn confession and both he and mrs rogers were found guilty of murder 11 14 N aan I 1 k za 11 1 AN I 1 1 A IN I 1 I 1 wa 7 7 in the first degree perham was sen fenced to imprisonment tor for life while the sentence in mrs rogers case waa wag death on the gallows the date set tor for the execution waa was feb 3 1905 on I 1 leb eb 2 after mrs rogers had received the last rites ot of the catholic church gov charles 3 bell boll granted her a reprieve until june 2 in order that the claim of her at torness to newly discovered evidence might be hard board before the vermont supreme court in an attempt to secure tor for the woman a new trial on may 17 last the f 11 91 bench of the vermont supreme coui chui I 1 heard the evi dence on which the petition tor for a new trial was based and a elitle more than a week later denied the petition on june 1 a second reprieve by gov bell removed the doomed woman from under the shadow of the scaffold old this reprieve was granted in order that the united states supreme court might pass upon the constitutionality and legality of the proceedings governing the sentence the united states supreme court was then petitioned tor for a writ of error in order that the case might go before the highest tribunal but this was denied on june 19 habeas corpus pro were instituted further ie le gal activity on the part of the con I 1 damned woman s attorneys resulted in the case being carried before the su sit preme court of the united states on an appeal from the rulings of the ver mont court on nov 27 last the unit ed states supreme court refused to stay the sentence of the vermont court mr mra rogers was the first person gentet sentenced ed to death in vermont within the las thirteen years who was re f ased cl mency the last murderer executed ii the state was sylvester bell who v s hanged in 1892 foi for wife murder the last woman to be executed was M s emeline Ei neline meeker who paid the dealt penalty at wind sor on march 30 1880 in vermont all executions are held at le state prison a and ri by a peculiarity y of the ube vermont law the duty of hanging conom led murderers devolves upon the si of windsor compty regardless of the section of the state in which the crime was committed |
